Abstract

There has been a significant progress in
ab initio
approaches to the structure of light nuclei. Starting from realistic two‐ and three‐nucleon interactions the
ab initio
no‐core shell model (NCSM) can predict low‐lying levels in p‐shell nuclei. It is a challenging task to extend
ab initio
methods to describe nuclear reactions. In this contribution, we present a brief overview of the NCSM with examples of recent applications as well as the first steps taken toward nuclear reaction applications. In particular, we discuss cross section calculations of p+6Li and 6He+p scattering as well as a calculation of the astrophysically important 7Be(p,γ)8B S‐factor.